Indigenous Languages Rising: An Urgent Call to Uphold Language Rights
Languages are more than just words — they carry heritage, identity, and culture, ensuring they’re passed on to future generations. Yet many Indigenous and non-dominant languages face the threat of extinction, pressured by systems that privilege only a few.
Dr. Candace Kaleimamoowahinekapu Galla, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia and member of Planet Word’s Advisory Board, is a leading advocate for Hawaiian and Indigenous language revitalization and education. In November 2025, UNESCO appointed her Co-Chair for Rights Education among Indigenous and Non-Dominant Language Communities.
Read her appeal for the importance of upholding language rights below.
Indigenous Languages Rising: An Urgent Call to Uphold Language Rights
Dr. Candace Kaleimamoowahinekapu Galla (Kanaka Hawaiʻi & Filipino)
Imagine a world where the words your grandparents spoke, the stories your community told, and the knowledge of the land you live on could vanish in a single generation. For many Indigenous and non-dominant languages, this is their lived reality — a direct result of colonialism and the deliberate suppression of these languages in schools, families, and public life across generations. Some languages now have only a handful of speakers remaining, while others have been revived through archival recordings and documentation — breathing life back into communities and sparking cultural resurgence.
This reminds us that language is far more than communication. Indigenous languages carry worldviews, cultural practices, generational wisdom, and relational teachings — living toolkits that guide solutions to global challenges, including the climate crisis. When Indigenous Peoples are silenced and our languages fall out of use, the world loses an entire way of understanding itself. But every time these languages are spoken, taught, or reclaimed, connection, insight, and possibility flourish — nurturing individuals, strengthening communities, and sustaining Nations.
Now is the time for action. The International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032), a UNESCO-led global initiative, calls on all of us to celebrate, support, and perpetuate these vibrant languages. Indigenous languages strengthen linguistic and cultural pluralism, enriching our local and global communities with diverse ways of knowing, being, and doing. While International Mother Language Day on February 21 shines a light on linguistic diversity, the rights of Indigenous Peoples to speak and live through our mother tongues extend far beyond a single day. These languages belong in homes, schools, workplaces, healthcare, media, government, and communities — anywhere and everywhere life unfolds.
Raising awareness alone is not enough. Advancing Indigenous language rights requires society to respect, transform, and understand that Indigenous languages are living, breathing practices — fully deserving to stand alongside dominant and mainstream languages. It calls on all of us to imagine a thriving, dynamic future in which Indigenous Peoples worldwide carry forward their languages through intergenerational transmission.
Across the globe, individuals and communities are working tirelessly to continue and perpetuate their languages. In my role as UNESCO Co-Chair on Rights Education among Indigenous and Non-Dominant Language Communities, together with Dr. Shannon Bischoff and Professor Mary Encabo Bishoff, I am honored to support efforts advancing language justice and inclusion. Our work underscores the urgency of supporting communities whose languages have long been marginalized or suppressed — and ensuring these languages live vibrantly into future generations.
Revitalizing Indigenous languages affirms the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples to speak, live, teach, dream, innovate, and thrive in our own languages. Every word embodied, every resource developed, every classroom taught through an Indigenous language, and every family that chooses to learn and speak their language reflects sovereignty in action — continuity, self-determination, and the refusal to let these languages be silenced.
Each time we honor and use our Indigenous languages, we ensure they live, thrive, and continue to shape the world around us. Choosing to perpetuate our languages — to resist erasure, celebrate diversity, and build a more inclusive future — is a win for all.
E ola mau nā ʻōlelo ʻōiwi — Indigenous languages shall live!
